Are You Listening?

Did you know that the Christmas carol "Do You Hear What I Hear" was written in October 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis? The emotional tug of the song's lyrics was so great that the creators of the carol struggled themselves to perform it, though it was covered by hundreds of artists.

The carol's message of peace remains relevant today, though I am going to steal its theme here for crass commercial purposes. Like the shepard boy and the king, we all need to be better listeners. A failure to hear can mean failure to recognize opportunity.

I used to work for a market research company that had a monopoly on certain categories of market data. There are many many such companies including NPD, Nielsen and IHS Markit, to name just a few. These companies rely on their monopoly status to turn their business into something more like a protection racket than a market research operation.

Of course, some are smart and use their client access to tap into consulting opportunities. These organizations are only able to do so because they listen. You can't solve problems for clients if you can't first listen to find out what those problems are.

But when you work for a dominant, monopolistic information provider your inclination is to talk at your clients. The sales people and consultants with the particular company for whom I used to work were fond of meeting with clients and prospects, sitting them down, turning out the lights and force feeding them Powerpoint slides. Invariably by the end of the meeting one or more of the client or prospect attendees would have nodded off. (This happens a lot in Japan.)

This company was suffering from a major over-supply of hubris. The company's assessment of market conditions and opportunities were considered gospel - at least internally - even though there were whale-sized holes in its data sources and methodology.

But that really didn't matter. The bigger problem was that the company wasn't listening to its clients or prospects. But that, too, didn't matter because the company had a monopoly after all.

This traumatizing experience has made me especially averse to Powerpoint presentations during sales and non-sales meetings. While it's true that some prospects are not especially chatty, so you need the Powerpoint to fall back on, it is essential to engage with the client or prospect to discover and understand their pain points and market intelligence needs - even and especially after they've already signed up as a client.

The motivation behind the Powerpoint pitch is to fit the client/prospect into the standard offering of solutions. But in a world of rapid technological change, this is a formula primed for failure. It's not going to work. A rate card and Powerpoint are no substitute for two ears and a brain.

I have become something of a client whisperer at my current employer. I'm the go-to guy for clients with needs that don't fit neatly into the existing rate sheet of services. Of course, sometimes the need is beyond my capabilities and more suited to my colleagues in consulting - ie. it's a project.

In the midst of disruptive market and technology changes, the need to listen to clients is more severe and pronounced than ever before. The hardest thing of all is to listen closely to the human being in front of you at all times. In fact, the opportunity to listen to someone is a precious gift and the ability to listen carefully and understand is both an art and a science.

My wife gives me a hard time that I listen too closely to the words she is speaking rather than "hearing" the meaning behind what she is saying. She accuses me of 'listening like a man' and we have a good laugh - or at least she does - but the point is made.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to sell reports and services off of a rate card when technology is upending assumptions regarding consumer behavior. Continued success in the market requires close listening and careful and clever hearing.

Over the years, on occasion, I have visited clients with nothing at all to present. Some clients and prospects merely want to chat. They want to be heard and they want to listen. They may already know the answers to their questions and just want validation. A Powerpoint in these circumstances would simply get in the way.

As you prepare for the new year, if you are a business development or sales executive, make sure you are listening. Within the spoken words of your client or prospect are the keys to a richer relationship and long-term success.

The opportunity to sit in front of a client or a prospective client is a gift. You may have a lot of information and insight you want to share with that client, but the priority ought to be on listening. Open that gift of listening in the new year and you will be rewarded.